Ventilation system and method of controlling the same

ABSTRACT

Provided are a ventilation system and a method of controlling the ventilation system. The ventilation system includes a duct for directing indoor air and light to an indoor space, a solar cell converting natural light traveling along the duct into an electric energy, a light source converting the electric energy generated by the solar cell into artificial light and emitting the artificial light to the indoor space, and a ventilation device connected to the duct.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a ventilation system, and moreparticularly, to a ventilation system that has a solar cell disposed ata location that is not interfering with a path of sunlight and usesenergy generated by the solar cell for the operation of an artificiallightening or the ventilation system

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional ventilation system includes a duct forming an airflowpath and a fan assembly for introducing and exhausting indoor/outdoorair.

In addition, a total heat exchanger that can partly recover a heatenergy contained in the indoor air is installed in the ventilationsystem.

Meanwhile, a conventional lightening system includes a lamp thatartificially illuminates the indoor space. Recently, an optical pipe hasbeen widely used to uniformly illuminate the indoor/outdoor spaces. Theoptical pipe totally reflects the light generated from the lamp toreduce the light loss when the light is propagated.

However, the lightening system and the ventilation system have thefollowing problems.

Since a space for the lightening system and a space for the ventilationsystem are required in an indoor space, they take up much indoor space.In addition, a variety of wires for the systems are complicatedlyarranged.

When the optical pipe is applied to the lightening system, the opticalpipe and the duct are independently arranged on the ceiling, theirinstalling space increases and the installing process is complicated.

In order for the proper illumination and the ventilation, they must bedisposed at proper locations. However, when the proper locationsconflict with each other, it cannot help deteriorating one of them.

Since the optical pipe or the duct is inevitably bent due to thearrangement design, the total reflection efficiency of the optical pipemay be deteriorated or the inner flow resistance of the duct increases.

Since the conventional optical pipe illuminates the indoor space usingthe separate lamp, the lamp must be always operated to illuminate theindoor space regardless of the outdoor weather and thus the powerconsumption increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a ventilation systemand a method of controlling the same that substantially obviate one ormore problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a ventilation systemthat can simultaneously perform the illumination and the ventilation andcan be easily installed with less installation space.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ventilationsystem that uses a solar cell as a sub-power source of an artificiallightening and a sub-power source of thereof.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide aventilation system that uses a solar cell as a sub-power source, therebyreducing a power consumption.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method ofcontrolling the ventilation system.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein,there is provided a ventilation system including: a duct for directingindoor air and light to an indoor space; a solar cell converting naturallight traveling along the duct into an electric energy; a light sourceconverting the electric energy generated by the solar cell intoartificial light and emitting the artificial light to the indoor space;and a ventilation device connected to the duct.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided aventilation system including: an exhaust duct for exhausting indoor airto an outdoor side; a supply duct for directing outdoor air and light toan indoor space; a ventilation device connected to each duct; a lightcollection unit for inducing natural light to the supply duct; a solarcell converting natural light induced to the supply duct into anelectric energy; and a light source converting the electric energygenerated by the solar cell into artificial light and emitting theartificial light to the indoor space.

In still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod of controlling a ventilation system, including: directing naturallight into a duct along which air flows; converting an energy of theincident natural energy into an electric energy; and converting theelectric energy into artificial light and emitting the artificial lightinto an indoor space.

According to the present invention, since a ventilation systemsimultaneously performs the illumination and the ventilation, it can beeasily installed with less installation space.

In addition, since the ventilation system uses a solar cell as asub-power source of an artificial lightening and a sub-power source ofthereof, power consumption can be reduced.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a ventilation system according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view of a light collection unit according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a view of an artificial light source according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating natural light incident into an indoorspace according to embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating artificial light incident into an indoorspace emitted from a second light source unit according to an embodimentof the present invention; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are views of a ventilation system according to a secondembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many differentforms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodimentsset forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey theconcept of the invention to those skilled in the art.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a ventilation system according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a ventilation system 1 includes a ventilationdevice 100 for ventilating an indoor space, a ventilation duct 200 forguiding light and outdoor air, a light collection unit for directingnatural light to the ventilation duct 200, and artificial light sources240 and 330 for providing artificial light to the ventilation duct 200.

The ventilation duct 200 is connected to the ventilation device 100,including a first duct unit 210 for guiding the light and outdoor air, asecond duct unit 220 connected to the first duct unit 210 to guide thelight and outdoor air to the indoor space.

A plurality of optical fibers are arranged on an inner surface of theventilation duct 200 lengthwise. In this case, the optical fiber mayinclude a core formed of polymethyl methacrylate and a clad array formedof fluorine polmethyl methacrylate.

At this point, since the refractive index of the clad array is lowerthan that of the core, the light introduced from a first end of theoptical fiber is total-reflected at a contact surface between the coreand the clad array and directed toward a second end of the opticalfiber.

The first duct unit 210 may be disposed facing the sun-rise and sun-setdirections. That is, the first dust unit 210 is arranged at east andwest sides of a building. For the house or building facing the south,the first duct unit 210 may be disposed facing the south or south-west.

The first duct unit 210 may be enclosed with respect to the externalside in order to prevent the natural or artificial light from leaking tothe outdoor side. That is, the first duct unit 210 may be buried in thewall of the building or closed by a shielding member 211.

This is for preventing light pollution. That is, by preventing theartificial light from being emitted to an external side at night, theecological damage and the disturbance of the sleep of human can beprevented.

The light collection unit 230 for directing the natural light to theventilation duct 200 is installed on the first duct unit 210. The lightcollection unit 230 includes a plurality of solar cells for convertingnatural light into electric energy and charging the converted electricenergy.

The electric energy charged by the solar cells of the light collectionunit 230 may be used as sub-electric power for the artificial lightsources 240 and 330.

That is, the light collection unit 230 may rotate to concentrate thenatural light on the first duct unit 210 according to an altitude of thesun. The light collection unit 230 or the first duct unit 210 may beprovided with a sensor for detecting the altitude of the sun.

In this case, the light collection unit 230 may be formed in a plateshape that can refract and reflect the sunlight on the first duct unit210. The light collection unit 230 may be designed to rotate by a motorunit.

The light collection unit 230 is designed to cover an inlet of the firstduct unit 210 to prevent the snow and rain from infiltrating into thefirst duct unit 210.

The first artificial light source 240 is for the first duct unit 210 andthe second artificial light source 240 is for the second duct unit 220.

The electric energy converted by the solar cell may be provided as thepower required for operating the second artificial light source 330.

A light refraction unit 250 may be installed on the first duct unit 210to refract the natural and artificial light toward the second duct unit220. In this case, the light refraction unit 250 may be provided on aportion where the first duct unit 210 is connected to the second ductunit 220.

A first light incident angle adjusting unit 260 may be further installedon the second duct unit 220 to adjust an angle of the light incident onthe second duct unit 220. The first incident angle adjusting unit 260functions to focus the light refracted by a predetermined angle throughthe light refraction unit 250 on the second duct unit.

Second and third incident angle adjusting unit 270 and 260 may befurther installed on the first and second duct units 210 and 220 toadjust an incident angle of the artificial light emitted from the firstand second artificial light units 240 and 330.

Therefore, the artificial light emitted from the artificial lightsources 240 and 330 are concentrated on the second duct unit 220 by thesecond and third incident angle adjusting units 270 and 360, therebyeffectively emitted into the indoor space.

Meanwhile, the ventilation device 100 sucks the outdoor air and suppliesthe sucked outdoor air to the indoor space. In this case, an exhaustduct may be further installed on the ventilation device 100 to dischargethe indoor air to the outdoor side. A blower fan for sucking theindoor/outdoor air may be further installed. In addition, a total heatexchanger may be further installed to recover a part of the heat energydischarged to the outdoor side by heat-exchanging the indoor air withthe outdoor air.

A dust collection filter for purifying the outdoor air may be furtherinstalled in the ventilation device 100. The dust collection filter 110filters off the foreign objects contained in the outdoor air, therebypreventing the illumination efficiency from being deteriorated.

A deodorizing filter 120 may be further installed in the ventilationdevice 100 to deodorize the outdoor air.

The dust collection filter 110 and the deodorizing filter 120 may beinstalled considering the traveling direction of the light so as not tointerfere with the traveling path of the light.

FIG. 2 is a view of the light collection unit.

The following will describe the energy charging structure of the lightcollection unit 230 with reference to FIG. 2.

The light collection unit 230 includes a plurality of solar cells 231that can covert the light energy generated from an external energysource such as the sun into an electric energy, and a dome forprotecting the solar cells 231.

In addition, the light collection unit 230 includes a charging unit 235for charging the electric energy converted by the solar cells 231, afirst current wire 234 connecting the charging unit 235 to the solarcells 231, and a member for connecting the charging unit 235 to anexternal component.

Here, the charging unit 235 is connected to the first or secondartificial light sources 240 and 330 by a second current wire 236.

As described above, the electric energy charged by the solar cells 231formed in the light collection unit 230 may be used as a power voltageof the artificial source. Therefore, an eco-oriented ventilation systemcan be realized and the reliability of the user increases.

Here, the first and second artificial light sources 240 and 330 may belamps that can emit light with a predetermined luminous intensity aselectric power is applied to thereto. The luminous intensity of thelamps can be property set according to a place where the ventilationsystem is applied.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the artificial light source.

The following will describe the second artificial light source 330 inmore detail,

The second artificial light source 330 functions to emit light by theapplication of the predetermined voltage and charge the electric energy.

That is, the second artificial light source 330 includes a lamp 332emitting light and a solar cell 331 converting the natural light intothe electric energy.

The electric energy charge by the second artificial light source 330 canbe performed simultaneously with the electric energy charge by the lightcollection unit 230, thereby increasing the energy efficiency.

The solar cell 331 further includes a charging unit functioning toconvert the light energy into an electric energy and charge theconverted electric energy.

The following will describe the operation of the ventilation system.

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating natural light incident into an indoorspace according to embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is aview illustrating artificial light incident into an indoor space emittedfrom a second light source unit according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

First, the ventilation system has a lightening mode and a ventilationmode that can be independently or simultaneously operated. Thelightening mode is classified into a natural light mode and anartificial light mode according to a luminous intensity of the solarlight.

The following will describe the natural light mode operation of theventilation system with reference to FIG. 4.

A predetermined control unit operates the light collection unit 230 fromthe sunrise to the sunset automatically or manually by a user.

The light collection unit 230 rotates at a predetermined angle where thenatural light can be reflected as large as possible in the first ductunit 210. Accordingly, the natural light is incident on the duct unit210 and travels while being total-reflected.

In this case, the solar heat is converted into the electric energy bythe solar cell 231 formed in the light collection unit 230. Theconverted electric energy is stored in a predetermined charging unit soas to be used as a power voltage of the second artificial light source330.

In addition, the light refraction unit 250 of the first duct unit 210refracts the natural light that is total-reflected to the second ductunit 220. The refracted natural light is incident through the firstincident angle adjusting unit 260 and reflected from the optical fiberof the second duct unit 220. Then, the natural light transmits throughthe second duct unit 220. The transmitted natural light illuminates theindoor space with a predetermined luminous intensity.

Meanwhile, when the ventilation unit 100 operates, the outdoor airpasses through the dust collection filter 110 and then flows into thefirst duct unit 210. Then, the purified air passes through the firstduct unit 210 and then flows into the second duct unit 220. The outdoorair flowing along the second duct unit 220 flows into the indoor spacethrough a diffuser 221 formed on the ventilation duct 200, therebyventilating the indoor space.

The following will describe the artificial light mode operation of theventilation system with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 illustrates theemission of the artificial light from the second artificial lightsource.

The first artificial light source 240 and/or the second artificial lightsource 330 are automatically operated according to the weather conditionor the user's selection.

The first artificial light source 240 and/or the second artificial lightsource 330 emit light with a predetermined luminous intensity. Theemitted artificial light is incident into the ventilation duct 200 bythe second incident angle adjusting unit 270 and/or the third incidentangle adjusting unit 360.

In this case, the electric energy charged by the light collection unit230 may be used as the power voltage applied to the first artificiallight source 240 and/or the second artificial light source 330. Inaddition, when the solar cell 331 is provided on the second artificiallight unit 330, the electric energy by the solar cell 331 may be used.

The artificial light generated from the first artificial light source240 is directed into the second duct unit 220 as the light refractionunit 250 formed on the first duct unit 210 rotates by a predeterminedangle.

In addition, the artificial light generated from the second artificiallight source 330 is concentrated on the ventilation duct 200 by thethird incident angle adjusting unit 360, thereby illuminating the indoorspace.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are views of a ventilation system according to a secondembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, a feature of a ventilation system accordingto the second embodiment is that a first duct unit 210 for direction thenatural light is installed at both ides of the indoor space toilluminate the indoor space using the external natural light.

Particularly, the first duct unit 210 may be installed in both locationsfacing the sunrise direction and the sunset direction. In this case, theconversion into the electric energy and electric charge by the lightcollection unit 230 can be performed when during the sunrise and sunset.

Since other parts except for the installation of the first duct unit 210are identical to those of the foregoing embodiment, the detaileddescription thereof will be omitted herein.

Meanwhile, the electric energy charged by the light collection unit 230may be used as a power voltage applied to the first artificial lightsource 240. In this case, the electric energy charged by the lightcollection unit 230 is supplied to the first artificial source 240through the third current wire 241 connected to the first artificiallight source 240.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus,it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. A ventilation system comprising: a duct for directing outdoor air andlight to an indoor space; a solar cell converting natural lighttraveling along the duct into an electric energy; a light sourceconverting the electric energy generated by the solar cell intoartificial light and emitting the artificial light to the indoor space;and a ventilation device connected to the duct.
 2. The ventilationsystem according to claim 1, wherein a light collection unit forinducing the natural light is provided on the duct.
 3. The ventilationsystem according to claim 2, wherein a solar cell for converting thenatural energy into the electric energy and a charging unit for storingthe converted electric energy are provided in the light collection unit.4. The ventilation system according to claim 3, wherein the solar cellof the light collection unit is used as a voltage source of the lightsource.
 5. The ventilation system according to claim 2, wherein thelight collection unit selectively opens the duct.
 6. The ventilationsystem according to claim 1, further comprising an incident angleadjusting unit for adjusting an incident angle of light passing throughan internal portion of the duct.
 7. The ventilation system according toclaim 1, wherein light is incident from both sides of the duct andemitted to the indoor space.
 8. The ventilation system according toclaim 1, wherein a sensor for detecting an altitude of the sun isprovided on the duct.
 9. The ventilation system according to claim 1,wherein an optical fiber is provided in the duct.
 10. A ventilationsystem comprising: an exhaust duct for exhausting indoor air to anoutdoor side; a supply duct for directing outdoor air and light to anindoor space; a ventilation device connected to each duct; a lightcollection unit for inducing natural light to the supply duct; a solarcell converting natural light induced to the supply duct into anelectric energy; and a light source converting the electric energygenerated by the solar cell into artificial light and emitting theartificial light to the indoor space.
 11. The ventilation systemaccording to claim 10, wherein the light collection unit is deigned torotate in response to an altitude of the sun.
 12. The ventilation systemaccording to claim 10, wherein the light collection unit selectivelyopens the duct.
 13. The ventilation system according to claim 1, whereinthe light collection unit includes a solar cell converting the naturallight into an electric energy.
 14. The ventilation system according toclaim 10, wherein the natural light and the artificial light are emittedto the indoor space.
 15. The ventilation system according to claim 10,wherein an optical fiber is provided in the supply duct.
 16. A method ofcontrolling a ventilation system, comprising: directing natural lightinto a duct along which air flows; converting an energy of the incidentnatural energy into an electric energy; and converting the electricenergy into artificial light and emitting the artificial light into anindoor space.
 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the electricenergy used as a power voltage of the artificial light is supplied by asolar cell.
 18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the solar cellis installed in a light collection unit inducing the natural light tothe duct or in the duct.
 19. The method according to claim 18, whereinthe light collection unit is designed to rotate with respect to the ductin response to an altitude of the sun.
 20. The method according to claim16, wherein the natural light or the artificial light traveling alongthe duct is total-reflected.